Cultists have been randomly selected by a deific bluespace abomination to carry out their will and do their bidding, serve them in whatever way possible. Remember to check out Cult Magic to gain a better understanding on your dark God's gift to the randomly selected cultists.

FOR THE LOVE OF NAR-SIE, PLEASE READ THE GUIDE

The Beginning of a New Era

The Geometer of Blood, Nar-Sie, has sent a number of her followers to NSS Cyberiad. As a cultist, you have an abundance of cult magics at your disposal, something for all situations. You must work with your brethren to summon an avatar of your eldritch goddess!

Several cultists will arrive on the station. When you spawn, you'll find a piece of paper, which is really a three-use summoning talisman in your backpack. The three-use talisman will allow you to do summon useful talismans and other objects.

Objectives

Your objectives and god will vary shift to shift, but your objectives will occur in phases to include:

Spilling blood on the station,

Sacrificing a target,

Converting a set number of people

and Summoning your god or demons.

Remember: Even if you god does not EXPLICITLY tell you to convert people there is ALWAYS safety in numbers.

The general path of action of the cult and those in it:

Summon your tome.

Contact your allies through your Commune action button. The Commune action sends a whispered message to all cultists.Important: Communication and teamwork is essential! Also note, your communing will NOT be silent

Find an area to convert into a base, usually accessible by one or more members of the cult, and cut cameras and in general make the base usable and hidden for the cult.

Setup a teleport rune, so all cultist can access it.

Secure your base by placing wall runes infront of windows and doors.

Get some paper for talismans and if possible get metal for constructing empty shells and platsteel for creating cult structures.

Convert new members and give them a tome.

Fulfill your objectives.

The Tome

Your Tome is your most important object and has several functions:

You can draw runes with it.

Hitting a cultist with it, removes holy water from them.

Hitting a non cultist with it, causes them burn damage.

Hitting runes with it, removes them.

Hitting cult structure with it, will unachor and anchor them.

Hitting a cult wall with it will open/close the wall (like fake walls).

If you're in a position that would usually wander the halls, try to seek out your fellow cultists in person. If not, check in with your brothers using your Commune, but do this in private, to prevent people from hearing your whispers. A lot of jobs have access to isolated areas of the station that are great for this, and there's also space. Remember, if you get caught, you endanger the entire cult.

The Starting Talisman

You will have an innocuous-looking paper in your backpack or pocket. It's a special talisman imbued with blood, which can be invoked three times to spawn a number of useful objects, including a regular 1-use talisman of varying types, a soulstone or a construct shell. Make sure to hide the talisman from everyone who does not serve Nar-Sie.

Name

In Starting Talisman

Description

Summon a soul stone

Only starting Talisman.

Summons a soul stone, used to capure the spirits of dead or dying humans

Summon a construct

Only starting Talisman.

Summons a construct shell for use with soulstone-captured souls..

Talisman of Tome Summoning

Yes.

Summons an arcane tome, used to scribe runes and communicate with other cultists.

Talisman of Teleportation

Yes.

A single-use talisman that will teleport a user to a teleport rune, which you can choose from a list.

Talisman of Veiling

Yes.

A multi-use talisman that hides nearby runes. On its second use, will reveal nearby runes.

Talisman of Disguising

No.

A talisman that will make nearby runes appear fake.

Talisman of Electromagnetic Pulse

Yes.

A talisman that will cause a moderately-sized electromagnetic pulse.

Talisman of Arming

No.

A talisman that will equip the invoker with cultist equipment if there is a slot to equip it to.

Talisman of Horrors

No.

A talisman that will break the mind of the victim with nightmarish hallucinations

Talisman of Construction

No.

Use this talisman on at least twenty-five metal sheets to create an empty construct shell or on platsteel to create runed metal.

Talisman of Shackling

No.

Use this talisman on a victim to handcuff them with dark bindings. Can be used several times.

The Tome

The Tome allows you to scribe a random set of these runes, using Scribe Rune, or to access information on these runes, with Read Tome, though you clearly don't need to do that if you're here.

Name

Invokers Required

Description

Rite of Enlightenment

2

Instantly converts a normal crewmember on top of it to the cult, and spawning an arcane tome. Does not work on mindshield-implanted crew.

Rite of Tribute

3

sacrifices a normal crewmember to your god. May place them into a soul shard if their spirit remains in their body.

Rite of The Corporeal Shield

1

This rune magically thickens the air above it when used, stopping everything trying to pass through it, including cultists. Invoke the rune to toggle this effect, at the cost of some damage. When activated, it also activates nearby wall runes for free, but turns off after 90 seconds.

Boil Blood

3

When invoked, it instantly deals extreme amounts of damage to any non-cultists who see it. However, cultists in range of the rune will take some damage. The rune itself will lightly explode when used, so be careful!

Leeching

1

When invoked, this rune will transfer lifeforce from the victim to the invoker

Rite of Disruption

1-9

This rune causes a large EMP, disabling machines and, more specifically, cyborgs, in a large area. However, the rune will be consumed on invoking. The more people invoke the rune at once, the bigger and stronger the EMP gets. It's deleted after being used.

Rite of Resurrection

1

Whenever someone is sacrificed on a Convert rune, they add one (global) charge to this rune. Placing a corpse on the rune and activating it will bring it back to life, expending one charge.

Teleport

1

This rune warps everything above it to another teleport rune, which you can choose from a list.

Rite of Joined Souls

2

This rune allows you to summon any cultist to the rune. This works across Z-levels, including the escape shuttle. It's deleted after being used.

Astral Communion

1

This rune allows you to leave your mortal body and become a ghost. This comes with all those benefits of being a ghost -- being able to communicate with other ghosts, seeing invisible, and so on. You can re-enter your body the same way as you re-enter corpse as a regular ghost. The body itself slowly receives damage while you are ghosted, and the rune will automatically keep your body anchored to the rune itself.

Rite of Spectral Manifestation

1

This rune allows you to manifest ghosts as semitransparent homunculi, which are effectively weak, humanoid cultists with no self preservation instinct. To sustain these homunculi, you must remain on the rune, and each homunculi you have summoned will cause you damage.

Rite of Binding

1

This rune transforms paper into powerful magic talismans. You put a paper on top of it, invoke it and choose which one you want to create. After a brief channel, it will convert the paper into a talisman. For possible Talismans and their effects, see above.

Ritual of Dimensional Rending

9

This rune tears apart dimensional barriers, calling forth the Geometer. To draw this rune you needs a free 3x3 space around you. Starting to draw this rune creates a weak 3x3 forcefield and alarms the entire station of your location. Requires 9 invokers. Can only be invoked, if all other objectives are fulfilled.

Structures

By using a construction talisman on plasteel, you are able to get runed metal. With it you can build several structures, with unique powers. You can unanchor cult buildings by hitting them with your tome.

Name

Cost

Description

Altar

5 runed metal

A bloodstained altar dedicated to Nar-Sie. By using it, you are able to create a Eldritch Whetstone, to sharpen your weapon, a Zealot's Blindfold, which lets you see in he dark, a Flask of Unholy Water, which heals cultists or a Deadly Sacrificial dagger. After using the altar, it needs some time to recharge.

Forge

5 runed metal

A forge used in crafting the unholy weapons used by the armies of Nar-Sie. By using it, you are able to create a Shielded Robe, which creates a powerful shield around the user, a Flagellant's Robe, which makes you faster, but at the cost of increased damage or a cultist Hardsuit, for space walks. After using the forge, it needs some time to recharge.

Pylon

3 runed metal

A floating crystal that slowly heals those faithful to Nar'Sie. Also slowly turns the surrounding floor into engraved floor.

Archives

2 runed metal

A desk covered in arcane manuscripts and tomes in unknown languages. Looking at the text makes your skin crawl. By using it, you are able to create a Supply Talisman, the one a cultist gets at the start of the round, a Veil Shifter, a 4 use random teleporter that moves you a random medium distance exactly in the direction you're facing or a Shuttle Curse, which when used, delays the escape shuttle for 2 minutes (a maximum of two Shuttle Curses can be used for a total of 4 minutes of delay). After using the archives, it needs some time to recharge - around five minutes.

Runed door

1 runed metal

Only opens for cultists. Useful securing your base, but a dead giveaway that a cult is onboard.

Constructs

Robust cultists will likely want to enlist the services of a few constructs. To create a construct, a cultist requires:

A filled soul stone, either by sacrificing a human, or capturing a soul manually with a stone from a supply talisman or an artificer.

An empty shell, either by using a construction talisman on 25 metal sheets, from an artificer, or from a starting talisman.

When the filled soul stone shard is used on an empty shell, the cultist will be allowed to choose the desired construct to create. Keep in mind these guys are pretty much a dead giveaway that there is cult activity on the station, so try to be covert about it in the beginning.

Artificers will poop out new soulstones and shells, wraiths can kill the AI, and juggernauts are great tanks.

Threats to the Cult

Even with access to a large amount of different runes and talismans, there are still several threats to the cult on the station.

Security and the Chaplain

Even the best prepared cultists will have trouble to defend themselves against the united power of security .Especially if the Chaplain Helps them. The Chaplain is able to turn normal water into Holy Water, which will turn cultist back to normal people, if it stays long enough in their system. The Chaplain is also immune to cult magic and his bible is able to make hidden runes visible by hitting the the suspected tile with it.

Tips

Cultists can know a rune's name and effects by examining it.

Your tome is a robust burning weapon.

The chaplain is immune to your magic. Don't attempt to use talismans on him, or you will get discovered and beheaded.

Constructs can invoke runes

Cultists often find a use for medibots. Having a single bot with a low threshold, backed up with the odd bruise pack, can allow a tiny number of cultists to summon and arm a vast number of ghostly warriors to their aid. A single bot can juggle multiple people at once, if they are relatively close to each other. Pylons also serve this purpose very well.

Engineering staff during cult are top-priority converts, as they can sabotage telecomms for you, or build secret bases in space.

Are you cult? Got talismans? You can store them on a clipboard, and nobody ever checks clipboards, especially if you're QM or another role that spawns with them. Right-click the papers to label them and keep track of their effects, or just examine them.

Get some platsteel either from mining, stealing it from robotics, engineering or EVA storage, or deconstructing reinforced walls/tables if you are desperate.

Always be ready to summon a cultist in trouble. He will likely not be able to call for help on the cult chat, so keep an eye on normal comms. Even better if you have someone in Astral Communion to warn you.

Astral Communion is an incredibly powerful exploration tool, and ghosts can give you precious hints.

The EMP rune's area of effect scales with invokers, and can hit most of the station if placed in a central enough spot, effectively working as a powersink. Combine this with crowbars for free access everywhere.

Are almost all other cultist dead? Get a medibot and create a ghost army with Manifest Spirit and arm them with Talismans of Arming.

Manifest Spirit is also useful for getting those missing cultists you need for the Nar'Sie rune.